But the "fertilization president" comment was just about raping young women and he assumed in good faith that his past accomplishments would cinch the title.

Cut the demented fascist game show host a little slack . . .

Let me restate, by the way, that William Kristol does not deserve a redemption arc. It's just that if he has to have one, I'm glad it's being put to good use.

We should put that on our business cards - good icebreaker in international relations.

In fact, can you identify any standard at all by which American political reporting at the national/elite level has not comprehensively failed in the last four decades?

Our political press was a cancer on democracy even before it was bought out formally by fascist oligarchs.

From the gaslighting of the Clinton impeachment to the sports team analogies and focus on optics of the Florida recount (remember essentially any reporting on Gore in the 2000 campaign) to the Iraq War cheerleading to the tire swing for John McCain, this is a group that had failed well before Trump.

While almost certainly true, I do not see this as a particularly telling response to JMM's point. I think that few intellectually honest Americans would say that our country's model of political reporting has done well by essentially any measure over the last generation.

Ha! Remember back in 2002 when bad-faith neocons and gullible idiots in the media were claiming that everyone had to support giving the power to invade Iraq to George W. Bush precisely because that credible threat would make a peaceful solution to the WMD crisis possible?

Lies then, lies now.

The Bourbon restoration was a less delusional project.

Gore's father, by the way, was the key figure in passing the legislation creating the interstate highway system under Eisenhower.

From a certain perspective, Al Gore's career as an environmentalist can be seen as penance for his father's creation of the highway and suburban revolution in the US.